business ethics, the study and evaluation of decision making by businesses according to moral concepts and judgments. Ethical questions range from practical, narrowly defined issues, such as a company's obligation to be honest with its customers, to broader social and philosophical questions, such as a company's responsibility to preserve the environment and protect employee rights. Many ethical conflicts develop from conflicts between the differing interests of company owners and their workers, customers, and surrounding community. Managers must balance the ideal against the practical—the need to produce a reasonable profit for the company's shareholders with honesty in business practices, safety in the workplace, and larger environmental and social issues. Ethical issues in business have become more complicated because of the global and diversified nature of many large corporations and because of the complexity of government regulations that define the limits of criminal behavior. For example, multinational corporations operate in countries where bribery, sexual harassment, racial discrimination, and lack of concern for the environment are neither illegal nor unethical or unusual. The company must decide whether to adhere to constant ethical principles or to adjust to the local rules to maximize profits. As the costs of corporate and white-collar crime can be high, both for society and individual businesses, many business and trade associations have established ethical codes for companies, managers, and employees. Government efforts to encourage companies to adhere to ethical standards include President Clinton's Model Business Principles (1995), in a program overseen by the Dept. of Commerce.

business cycles, fluctuations in economic activity characterized by periods of rising and falling fiscal health. During a business cycle, an economy grows, reaches a peak, and then begins a downturn followed by a period of negative growth (a recession), that ends in a trough before the next upturn. The theory of business cycles is generally attributed to French physician Clement Juglar, who proposed in 1862 that such fluctuations were to be expected in any economic system. Other later theorists developed Juglar's theory, arriving at business cycles of anywhere from 10 years to the half-century cycle suggested by Russian economist Nikolai Kondratieff. Many attempts have been made to equalize business cycles through monetary and fiscal policy decisions. During the 1970s and 80s, for instance, U.S. fiscal policy deliberately created a recession to combat inflation. Theories on the causes of business cycles consider various possible factors; however, none has conclusively delineated the underlying causes for fluctuations. Such 20th-century theorists as John Maurice Clark and Joseph Schumpeter have attempted to find cures for economic instability, rather than describing it as simply a natural phenomenon in the manner of many 19th-century theorists. The "underconsumption" theory, for instance, claims that an inordinate amount of income goes to the wealthy rather than to investment, thus producing instability.

Business Roundtable (BRT), an association consisting of the chief executive officers of major U.S. corporations that was founded in 1972 through the merger of the three preexisting business organizations. The BRT was established to give large corporations a stronger voice in lobbying U.S. government officials on business-related issues, and it has become the most influential U.S. business lobbying organization. Within the BRT, task forces headed by CEOs are established to make policy recommendations on particular issues or areas, such as corporate governance, and to develop a plan of action to secure the recommendations implementation. The BRT has only a small permanent staff; most of its work is done by the staffs of member corporations or outside consultants. Currently the CEOs of 140 companies are members of the Business Roundtable; the organization has had as many as 200 members. Membership in the BRT is by invitation.

Better Business Bureaus (BBBs), agencies devoted to promoting ethical practices on the part of business through voluntary self-regulation. BBBs are supported by businesses in communities throughout the United States. They provide a number of services to consumers, including monitoring advertising for truth and accuracy, screening advertising that involves products for children, providing information to consumers and businesses to help them make informed purchasing decisions, settling consumer complaints, and offering a philanthropic advisory service on the ethical standards of charitable organizations.

or commercial law or mercantile law

Legal rules and principles bearing on business organizations and commercial matters. It regulates various forms of legal business entities, including sole proprietors, partnerships, registered companies with limited liability, agents, and multinational corporations. Nearly all statutory rules governing business organizations are intended to protect creditors or investors. In addition, specific bodies of law regulate commercial transactions, including the sale and carriage of goods (terms and conditions, specific performance, breach of contract, insurance, bills of lading), consumer credit agreements (letters of credit, loans, security, bankruptcy), and relations between employers and employees (wages, conditions of work, health and safety, fringe benefits, and trade unions). It is a broad and continually evolving field. Seealso agency; corporation; debtor and creditor; intellectual property; labour law.

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Acquisition of trade secrets from business competitors. Industrial spying is a reaction to the efforts of many businesses to keep secret their designs, formulas, manufacturing processes, research, and future plans. Trade secrets may find their way into the open market through disloyal employees or through various other means. Penalties against those found guilty range from an injunction against further use of the knowledge to substantial damages. Seealso patent.

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Raising and managing of funds by business organizations. Such activities are usually the concern of senior managers, who must use financial forecasting to develop a long-term plan for the firm. Shorter-term budgets are then devised to meet the plan's goals. When a company plans to expand, it may rely on cash reserves, expected increases in sales, or bank loans and trade credits extended by suppliers. Managers may also decide to raise long-term capital in the form of either debt (bonds) or equity (stock). The value of the company's stock is a constant concern, and managers must decide whether to reinvest profits or to pay dividends. Other duties of financial managers include managing accounts receivable and fixing the optimum level of inventories. When deciding how to deploy corporate assets to increase growth, financial managers must also consider the benefits of mergers and acquisitions, analyzing economies of scale and the ability of businesses to complement each other. Seealso corporate finance; inventory.

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Periodic fluctuation in the rate of economic activity, as measured by levels of employment, prices, and production. Economists have long debated why periods of prosperity are eventually followed by economic crises (stock-market crashes, bankruptcies, unemployment, etc.). Some have identified recurring 8-to-10-year cycles in market economies; longer cycles have also been proposed, notably by Nikolay Kondratev. Apart from random shocks to the economy, such as wars and technological changes, the main influences on the level of economic activity are investment and consumption. An increase in investment, as when a factory is built, leads to consumption because the workers employed to build the factory have wages to spend. Conversely, increases in consumer demand cause new factories to be built to satisfy the demand. Eventually the economy reaches its full capacity, and, with little free capital and no new demand, the process reverses itself and contraction ensues. Natural fluctuations in agricultural markets, psychological factors such as a bandwagon mentality, and changes in the money supply have all been proposed as explanations for initial changes in investment and consumption. After World War II many governments used monetary policy to moderate the business cycle, aiming to prevent the extremes of inflation and depression by stimulating the national economy in slack times and restraining it during expansions. Seealso productivity.

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